Augusta Systems Technologies to Enable Smart Electric Grid

SensorBridge and SensorPort Provide Infrastructure for Self-Healing System

Morgantown, W.Va. -- Technologies from Augusta Systems Inc., provider of intelligent enterprise network technologies, have been selected by Allegheny Power for use in an electricity grid modernization project. The project will enable a portion of Allegheny Power’s electricity distribution system in the Morgantown, West Virginia, service area to be “self-healing,” that is, to automatically detect, analyze and respond to problems and restore electricity service.

“This deployment breaks new ground in the electric utility industry,” said Dave Flitman, president of Allegheny Power, the electric delivery business of Allegheny Energy. “Using innovative technologies from Augusta Systems and others, the project features a unique solution for an existing problem that impacts electricity system reliability. Since this project deals with real operating conditions that are very common across the U.S., it can serve as a model for the next generation of electricity delivery throughout the country. The technologies to be deployed in this project will also help set the stage for other energy conservation initiatives we are pursuing as part of our recently announced Watt Watchers program. Watt Watchers educates consumers about energy conservation and includes a number of new energy conservation initiatives.”

The project will feature an autonomous, self-healing system consisting of reclosers and switches, an intelligent wireless communications network infrastructure, state-of-the-art sensors and system automation software. The system will be installed on two 12.5 kV electricity distribution feeders. The system will dynamically collect data from the feeders and, in case of a problem or “fault,” as it is called, will isolate the fault and restore some or all electricity service from adjacent feeders in real-time without manual intervention from system operators.

Augusta Systems® SensorBridge™ and SensorPort™ will be deployed as the key components of the system’s intelligent wireless communications network and control infrastructure, capable of supporting distributed, intelligent automation. SensorBridge is an award-winning suite of Microsoft Visual Studio software components for building and managing intelligent networks, systems and applications – featuring data from edge assets – within an integrated development environment. SensorPort is a reconfigurable network appliance for distributed, intelligent processing at the edge of the network.

“SensorBridge and SensorPort will help to create a dynamic, interactive network infrastructure for real-time information and electric grid management,” said Patrick Esposito, president and chief operating officer of Augusta Systems. “These Augusta Systems technologies will create an open architecture, plug-and-play environment that will connect and control the network’s smart sensors and actuators, uniting them with the utility and the end user.”

SensorPort appliances will be deployed throughout the distribution system, as part of a WiFi mesh network backbone, to provide the necessary communications and computational capacity to support distributed intelligence and the plug-and-play environment. SensorPort provides a flexible, sensor-agnostic, protocol agnostic network gateway that powers the extension of the IT and IP networks to the level of sensors and devices. SensorBridge-produced software code deployed on SensorPort will enable sensor, actuators and device data integration and correlation.

The technologies will essentially create an open, scalable, intelligent IT infrastructure that is uninterrupted from the field to the utility’s operations center to the end user – an infrastructure that can automatically maintain electricity reliability, security, affordability, quality and efficiency.

“We’re proud that Augusta Systems technologies will help to ensure electricity reliability through this project,” said Esposito. “We believe that effective enterprise networking, communications and control are solved problems if an open, scalable infrastructure is utilized. Intelligent enterprise networks are the key to a host of monitoring, automation and security challenges.”

About Allegheny Energy:
Headquartered in Greensburg, Pa., Allegheny Energy is an investor-owned electric utility with total annual revenues of over $3 billion and more than 4,000 employees. The company owns and operates generating facilities and, under the name Allegheny Power, delivers low-cost, reliable electric service to over 1.5 million customers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. For more information, visit www.alleghenyenergy.com.

About Augusta Systems:
Augusta Systems, Inc. powers intelligent enterprise networks. Augusta Systems products enable collaboration and communication between enterprise networks and edge assets – sensors, actuators, wireless sensor networks, RFID systems, imagery devices, and other edge-of-network systems and devices – which have existed beyond the reach of these networks. With platforms for building and managing solutions featuring data from edge assets, Augusta Systems provides simplified data integration, processing, correlation, and communication capabilities for Network 2.0-enabled enterprises.

Augusta Systems technologies and integration services – including core products SensorBridge, EdgeFrontier™, and SensorPort – support security, monitoring, automation, asset tracking, and other enterprise applications. These technologies reduce the total cost of ownership for intelligent enterprise networks and maximize return on investment for enterprise networks and edge assets.

Through key partnerships, Augusta Systems also offers integrated monitoring and control products, including ThreatViewer™, which provides remote monitoring capabilities for industrial, military, and homeland security.